Sunday, December 9, 2012

As a child, Peter Johnson was really into cartoons, which quickly
translated into a strong passion for anime and manga. What started off as
hanging out around import-stores amongst the small bloom of U.S. anime market of the mid-to-late
90’s has led to the Global Manga Initiative. As head manager and spokesperson
for G.M.I., Peter, along with other professional contacts, has developed an
online community for upcoming manga creators.

A graduate with a custom B.A. in Japanese Anime and Manga, Peter
also spent a semester studying abroad at Japanime LTD best know for their
"How to Draw Manga" books. Concluding his education at the School of Visual Arts, he was able to get G.M.I.
off the ground. Peter was cool enough to site down with This Peculiar Life NYC
to talk about G.M.I., the state of the anime industry, and the joys of squirrel
fishing.

This Peculiar Life NYC:What made you want to start the Global Manga Initiative?

Peter Johnson: Stubbornness. Ever since I was a kid the idea of a
creator who wasn't born and raised in Japan, and particularly one from
the Western-world, making any serious ripples in the anime/manga-industry was a
long-shot at best, impossible at worst. That was something I always wanted to
change. It was incredibly frustrating growing up with the knowledge that this
art-form, this manner of story-telling, was something still very much isolated
from my ambitions due to its current-place in the world; locked behind language
and culture barriers that would take years or even decades to overcome, plus
social-prejudices that I would constantly have to work around. Even with The
Avengers blazing through the box-office, most people still raise an eyebrow
at the idea of you having a successful career in comics, let alone a SPECIFIC
FORM of comics from halfway around the world. Somewhere along the way I decided
that I wanted to change that, not just for myself but for every creator out
there with similar passions. I formed G.M.I. because I feel there are a lot of
creators out there like me who are just too dedicated and steadfast in their
ambitions to bear giving up on their goals, and I want to do my best to found
the kind of creative-platform for success I felt was missing from the
world of manga.

T.P.L. NYC: What are the goals and mission statements you hope to
achieve with G.M.I.?

P.J.:
I guess you could say one of our primary goals is to progress/evolve manga.
I've spent my education and my work seeing many talented creators who had
strong-passions for making manga, but who are realistically stagnated by the state
of the industry and how hard it is to find recognition/success as an artist to
begin with. There's all this great content out there, but so much of it just
floats adrift, isolated on the internet or dumped into massive-archives sites
where there is next-to-no chance of really standing out. With G.M.I., I want to
create an open-anthology that not only hosts quality work, but also
incorporates the creative aspects of that work into the anthology itself; that
really focuses on not just archiving these works, but letting the viewers and
fans who come to our site know what's going on in these individual, epic
stories. And part of that process is watching just what exactly this
melting-pot of creativity will allow the world to come up with, and how that
ends-up affecting the growth of the Manga-genre.

T.P.L. NYC: How long has G.M.I. been operating?

P.J.: G.M.I. began to form around the end of 2010, but operated
primarily behind closed-doors until spring of 2011, when we announced the
project on Deviantart leading up to our first major outing at New York
Comic-Con. Things were very 'hush-hush' at first; we spent a lot of time
speaking with various artists and writers. There was a lot of careful
preparation involved; we wanted to make sure we did this project right.
The website itself launched in July of 2012, so we're still fairly young,
but I'm looking forward to seeing where we go from here.

G.M.I. Homepage

T.P.L. NYC: How many people are involved in G.M.I., and what do
you think makes a good team?

P.J. G.M.I. is made up of about twenty individuals in-total
at-present. The artists, writers and other creators featured on the site make
up the majority overall, with the management team holding a
comparatively-smaller roster of myself and several other individuals of
various-roles/specialties.

I think making a good team isn't all that different from forging
good relationships with those around you in-general; honesty, understanding and
empathy really go a long way in forming dependable-bonds, even if only through
a computer. Once you make that connection, it's just a matter of knowing each
individual's strengths and how best to use them in collaboration with
one-another to get the job done. I'm very grateful to the absolutely-fantastic
work I've gotten out of all the on-board artists and my team thus-far.

T.P.L. NYC: You were just at Comic-Con. How was the
experience?

﻿

Peter Johnson and G.M.I. at NYC Comic-Con 2012

P.J.: This was our second year
at New York Comic-Con; we were at the 2011 Artist's Alley back when New York
Anime Festival was still part of the picture. That said, I can see why most
would think 2012's show was our first NYCC-outing since this was our first time
on the Show Floor-proper. The experience was probably what you'd expect; an
insane blend of excitement, effort, worry, fun and amazement, but a fantastic
ride when all was said and done. We were right-across from the Square-Enix
booth this year, and literally next to the Show Floor entrance, so it was a
little intimidating when the NYCC doors would open-up and that huge crowd would pour out in front of us,
but I have to say my team did an excellent job remaining cool under-fire. I was
also really glad that some of our artists made the effort to make an appearance
in-person, some coming from as far-away as Argentina. Being used to working
online, it was really great to see the support for the project take on a human
face, and they were absolutely wonderful people to meet.

T.P.L. NYC: What are some of your favorite titles on the site?
What are they about?

P.J.: I try to remain impartial overall when it comes to the works
on the site (I'm not voting in the Best of G.M.I. Awards), but I have to give
special-mention to Crystal Jayme and her work Nigh Heaven & Hell.
She's got a really great style, has a serious knack for creating
memorable/fun-characters, and is an absolute-gem to work with; she's been
consistently updating exclusively on G.M.I. at about a 30-page-per-month rate,
and includes some frankly-breath-taking color work to use for
promotion-purposes. That kind of effort deserves recognition. It's somewhat
contrary to the usual approach to story-telling, but has a sorta
tongue-in-cheek approach that makes it all just work, which adds to its overall
uniqueness/charm.

Another work I'm excited about is a new series coming to G.M.I. in
December; "Bleak" by the artist AI. Without spoiling too much, it
follows a high-school student who's depressed over the stagnant-nature of his
life, but then begins to experience strange, supernatural-dreams that blur
the lines between fantasy and reality, and make him rethink his approach to
life. I think a lot of people will be able to identify with its themes, which
orbit around the idea of wanting to escape the dreary, ordinary routine and
aspire to something greater in life.

T.P.L. NYC: How did you find your artists? Do they come to you or
do you go look for them?

P.J.: A little of both; we
scout works when we have the time to do so (either online or through cons) but
we also get approached by a wide-range of talent interested in contributing to
the anthology in some way or another.

T.P.L. NYC: What are some of the challenges that you face in
putting something “Global” together?

P.J.: It's tough to organize something with people living in
different countries, on different time-zones and speaking different languages
as opposed to friends/connections you have in the neighborhood, but it comes
with the concept here. One of the obvious updates we'd like
to incorporate into G.M.I. is a multi-language format, so we can
more-accurately reflect a "global" standing.

T.P.L. NYC: Why manga as opposed to other styles of comics? Why do
you emphasize this particular style?

P.J.: Manga has always been very interesting to me because it is
an art-form that is simultaneously incredibly-diverse yet still very restrained
in terms of its global development. Progress has definitely been made, and this
art-form is still comparatively young, but I feel the overall
"soul" of Manga is something that is still very-much concentrated in
a small part of the world in which it was born. So there's a great combination
of huge diversity of the format combined with the exciting potential of seeing
how Manga will evolve as it continues to progress through the art-world on a
global-level that keeps me excited about it.

T.P.L. NYC: How can people be a part of G.M.I.? Who do they
contact?

P.J.: The best way to get involved with G.M.I. is to contact us
through our website and give us a quick-introduction. Nothing too fancy needed,
just tell us who you are, the sort of work you've done in the past, what you
want to do in the future, and your general ambitions in regards to working with
us. If you want to pitch a work to be featured as part of the G.M.I. Roster, it
helps to include a brief summation of the series as well as a pilot-chapter so
we can get an idea of the style of the story. We're also looking for talented
bloggers, critics, writers, editors and those involved in video who are
interested in Anime and Manga, as we're currently working on expanding the
website with new aspects like review, coverage, editorial and media-sections.

-Make your Voice Heard; Give us an aspiring creators feedback
through our Community Forums, and Social-Networking.

-Witness the Evolution and Progression of the Manga-Genre
firsthand as creators from across the globe come together under one roof as
they strive to become the next great Manga Legend!

T.P.L. NYC: How do you feel G.M.I. contributes or changes the
anime/manga market?

P.J.: I feel the open-nature of G.M.I. makes it something of a
variable to the market; what it becomes is really up to the Manga-creators out
there. We're essentially throwing open the doors to the world itself and saying
"show us what you've got out there!", then taking the greatest works
we can find and doing our best to help show them off to the entire world. I
feel variables like that are good for the overall market as it's a great way to
see the art-form evolve "from the front-lines."

G.M.I. differs from other online indie-manga sites [because] G.M.I.[‘s]
…goal is to remain an online-anthology [not an] archive-site. There are
hundreds of sites out there that will host original-series, but are content to
simply dump these works onto a "social-network"-esque archive next to
hundreds of similarly-setup indie-series. These sites merely HOST the series
they receive without really engaging and promoting the creative works
they've been given individually in a way that keeps fans interested. With
G.M.I., when we accept a work onto our roster, we also promote it not just as
yet-another entry into our database, but as a creative world that is constantly changing and is exciting; when
a major battle, romantic turning-point or other major narrative event occurs in
one of our on-board series, you will see it
promoted right there on the front-page. This also makes it
more-fun for the fans, as they can just jump onto the site and instantly get a preview of what exciting
things are occurring in all these different stories under-one-roof.
This is a lot easier, and in my humble-opinion a lot more FUN, then having to scour through archives
trying to get an idea of what a series is really all about based solely on a
cover-image. Obviously this requires a smaller,
focused, tighter roster of ongoing-works, but by cycling through
featured series we keep things interesting and do our best to give great
stories and creators their time in the sun.

I don't feel a Manga Anthology with this level of focus combined
with this open, global nature hasn’t really existed yet, so if I could
accurately predict the response to this project, it wouldn't be nearly as much
fun to watch it develop *smiles*.

Page from Bleak, a series from G.M.I.

T.P.L. NYC: Are you exclusively web based or do you plan on going
into the print arena?

P.J.: Exclusively web-based...for now...

T.P.L. NYC: So this blog is about peculiar things, what is one of
the most peculiar anime/manga titles you have seen or read recently?

P.J.: One of my all-time-favorite mangas is Yu Yagami's HIKKATSU!:
Strike a Blow to Vivify! because of its incredibly bizarre and
absolutely hilarious nature. It's about an expert martial-artist who literally
beats things back into shape with a technique called the "Repair
Blow"; a master-level strike designed to fix next-to-any problem with
something, whether it be a human or mechanical entity. The result? This guy
round-house kicks his friend across the street to fix the guy's dislocated
shoulder, engages in epic-battle against rampaging malfunctioning
construction-equipment and blows a hole in Mt.Fuji
to "fix" the frigid conditions on the mountain's peak. Combine that
with the fact that the "Repair Blow" isn't quite perfected and the
primary love-interest being raised by pigeons and you get
hilariously bizarre story you won't soon forget. I continue to
profuse my adoration for this series here: http://gmimanga.exepicstudios.com/forum/?mingleforumaction=viewtopic&t=33

Cover of Hikkatsu Vol. 1

T.P.L. NYC: What is the most peculiar thing you have experienced
or seen while in NYC?

P.J.: Squirrel-Fishin'. Basically the idea is several people sit
up in a tree, or on a high-point (like a rooftop) in a park or some other
environment that squirrels would inhabit with acorns, walnuts or the like tied
to the end of fishing line. You drop your bait to the ground below and wait for
a squirrel to grab-hold, then try to lift your furry-friend as high off the
ground as you can before they either free the bait or bail; highest squirrel
wins. Yes this is a real thing and no, they don't use any hooks (because that
would be cheating...in addition to the cruelty). Easily the strangest thing
I've seen in Central Park...

Squirrel-Fishing in the park

To learn more about G.M.I., or be a part of the creative team,
please visit their website, as they have some upcoming events planned. They
will premiere two new series for December: "Bleak" by AI and
"Meeting Hearts" by Stela Canga. Stick around for their “Best of
G.M.I. Awards"; a poll to determine which Ongoing-Series will be declared
the best G.M.I. Series for 2012. Fans can vote now at http://gmimanga.exepicstudios.com/best-of-g-m-i-voting-page/ Polls
close 2013.